This message is from: "Arthur Rivoire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello from Carol Rivoire at Beaver Dam Farm in Nova Scotia -
I thought I might be a good one to voice an opinion on this subject since
over the last 24 years, we've sold over 300 horses, and many of them have
been horses we've sold for other people.
Many times, when we have a Consignment Horse to sell, potential buyers will
ask why the horse is for sale. Sometimes, they're simply curious, but
othertimes, they have a nagging suspicion that something's wrong with the
horse. --- The latter, at least in the case of the horses we handle, is
almost never true. I mean, we go to great lengths to be sure we don't get
problem horses that someone just needs to get rid of. -- For several
reasons which I'll try to list below, we only want to handle good quality
horses, ones without problems.
Those reasons are -
* We don't want to get hurt trying to retrain problem horses
* We've got a hard-earned reputation to maintain, and certainly don't want
to
sell a questionable horse, no matter how experienced the buyer may be,
or
how cheap the horse may be.
* If it's not a good quality, attractive, pleasant horse, then there's just
no way
I can sell it as I can't fake it and drum up the necessary enthusiasm.
In order
for me to sell a horse, I REALLY have to like that horse.
* If it's a problem or poor quality horse, then it's simply not worth while
for the
owner to send it here and pay board & training plus commission.
* On the other hand, a really good horse without problems is very easy to
sell in
a timely manner which results in a good return for the owner, and a nice
commission for us. ---- And nobody gets hurt.
* If it's a poor quality horse, then the sale price and resulting
commission are just
not worth the effort to us. We don't make any money.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, those are the horses we don't take. -- The ones we do accept are
wonderful horses, and frankly, we often wonder ourselves, how the owner
could part with such great animals . . .
But, there are almost as many reasons as there are people buying and selling
horses.
We got a wonderful mare on consignment a few years ago. She was a Gjest
daughter that we'd sold as a weanling, and now she was 6 years old and
beautifully trained to ride and drive, and an absolute dream to handle. She
was terrifically athletic, and absolutely dependable. She moved just like
Gjest with reach and suspension and rhythm. We used her all season for the
Nova Scotia Beginner Driving vacations. She was that dependable! Anyone
could drive her, and those who did usually won our Thursaday
ompetition. -- One of our vacation guests bought her, and she didn't sell
cheaply. --And you know why this horse was for sale? At 13.3 hands, she
was a little short for her owner.
We sold a great 18 yr. old mare last summer. She went to a Therapeutic
Riding Center, but had the athletic ability to have been a champion CDE
horse. The reason this mare was for sale was that her owners were moving out
of the country. -- And this was one of those Fjords that had had several
owners. -- Beaver Dam Farm had originally imported her in utero, and sold
her as a yearling to a woman in NH who kept her as a pasture ornament until
age 3. We took her on consignment, trained her, and sold her to a MA woman
who worked her in dressage. The mare had a couple of foals with this owner,
who then for reasons I've forgotten decided to sell her, and we got her
again on consignment, and this time sold her to a Therapeutic Ride/Drive
place in NH where she worked successfully for several years, also having
more foals. Then the Therapy Place folded, and again we sold this mare,
this time to a family in ME, who kept her for many years with more foals,
until recently they moved out of the country, and the mare came back to us
to be sold to the Therapeutic Center in NJ where she's a beloved "Star" of
the program.
Then there was a beautiful 12 yr. old gelding who'd been really passed
around, and not very successfully so I'd heard. When the current owner
called me, I was very hesitant to take this horse as I'd heard "talk." In
fact, I stalled for about 10 months. Finally, they sent me a video and I
felt he was a decent, honest horse and decided to take the chance. -- When
he arrived at our farm, we kept waiting for him to do something wrong, and
he never ever did no matter what we faced him with. The only thing wrong
with him was he was kind of slow, but otherwise, totally dependable. --
The owner who'd put him on consignment with us had fallen off him --- And I
stress "fallen off" , not "thrown". I hate it when people say they've been
"thrown", when mostly they've fallen off. -- Anyway, she'd gotten spooked,
and I think had realized she just didn't want to ride, so that's how this
wonderful guy came to us. -- Thank heaven he did because through plain old
bad luck on his part, he hadn't had the advantage of experienced owners, and
through no fault of his own was developing a negative reputation, which
could have turned into a downward spiral of owners.
My point is that there are a whole lot of VERY GOOD horses that come up for
sale for a variety of reasons. Prospective buyers should either have the
experience to judge for themselves whether or not the horse has problems . .
. Or, if they can't do this for themselves, they'd be wise to hire someone
to look at the horse for them and make the decision.
And it's also very much a case of NOT EVERY HORSE IS RIGHT FOR EVERY
UYER! --- Each horse is different with a particular personality, tolerance
level, ability, and size. -- He may not fit his current owner for myriad
reasons, but be a perfect fit for someone else.
And finally, there's the question of money ---- Sometimes an owner needs
money , and therefore, decides to sell his best horse, which is the horse
that will sell the easiest for the most. -- And that's how many good
horses come on the market.
The bottom line is that just because a horse has been passed around a bit
doesn't, by an means, mean that he's a problem horse. "Au contraire", it
often means that here's a horse with a variety of experience and talents who
's pleased and served many people , and has a lot of years left for a new
owner or two.
Everybody always snickers and is cynical about that horse ad phrase "sadly
outgrown", but hey, often that's the case, and the horse is a wonderful
opportunity for some lucky buyer.
Kind Regards, Carol Rivoire
